A Quick Report from HORRORFIND WEEKEND 13

While I've been attending horror conventions since 1985, this was only the second year I've been to HORRORFIND down in Gettysburg, PA.  Unlike the more famous (and crowded) cons run by FANGORIA and CHILLER THEATRE, HORRORFIND features a nice BLEND of horror film makers and actors, as well as horror writers.  Among the guest signings and picture takings, HORRORFIND has a continual flow of authors reading from their works.  This year (thanks to the honorable Brian Keene) I was placed on two reading panels, the first with the hysterically dark James Roy Daley.  We each read a couple of shorts from our humorous horror catalogs and then signed books for an hour outside the reading room where we met lots of great people.  (That's me reading my Bentley Little tribute titled THE BOWL)
 (James Roy Daley reads his demented classic, CURSE OF THE BLIND EEL...)
(At the book signing table)
The second panel I was part of was labeled BIZARRO WORLD, and featured six authors from the Bizarro genre, including Greg Hall, Eric Mays, Andersen Prunty, Jordan Krall, William Pauley III and myself.  While I'm sort-of the new guy to the Bizarro thing, I was honored to read my Bizarro super-shorts alongside these nutjobs whose work I've been admiring for several years now.  It was easily the most original (and entertaining, IMO) panel at the convention.
(Greg Hall, Eric Mays (standing), Andersen Prunty, Jordan Krall, William Pauley III, and yours truly getting ready to test the mental capacity of the HORRORFIND crowd)
And of course, what convention is complete without excessive drinking and partying?  Saturday night was a surreal time: at the Wyndham Hotel's bar area, I discussed books and obscure films with Cemetery Dance columnist Mark Seiber and author(s) James Newman and Sheri White, as actors Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, and Ken Foree ate a Dominoes Pizza right next to us.  It was also great meeting artists Macabre Noir and her crew, as well as the wonderful Kristy Jett, one of the most dedicated horror fans out there (check out her amazing t-shirt company here: FRIGHT RAGS ).
I had already met Ken Foree and Sid Haig at other conventions, so the only film celebrity I was interested in meeting was the infamous John Waters.  He appeared for a two-hour signing/photo op on Friday night before performing his stand up routine.  HORRORFIND dropped the ball with this one, though: the online ads said ANY convention attendee could meet John between 7-9PM, but after waiting online for over an hour, the convention staff informed us that a raffle to meet him was being held at the check in table---when I checked in and received my guest pass, NO ONE offered me a chance to meet him.  FURIOUS, I ran back to the hotel lobby and explained the situation.  They let me pull a tag out of a hat, and of course I received a NO, meaning I couldn't meet Mr. Waters.  BUT, my best friend in the world pulled a YES and gave it to me without hesitation...hence many favors are now owed.  There were PLENTY of people who couldn't get in, and were outside fuming...I'm wondering if they'll be back to HORRORFIND after this fiasco?
So I finally got to meet JOHN WATERS, the man responsible for corrupting me almost as much as George Romero and Mario Puzo.  He turned out to be very nice, signed my copy of his latest book ROLE MODELS, and even told me the title of my novel (Don of the Dead) was "brilliant!"  I haven't been this star-struck since I met director Herschell Gordon Lewis way back in 1991. (Me with JOHN WATERS...life is now complete!)
I also attending a great reading by Jeremy Wagner, who read from his debut novel THE ARMAGEDDON CHORD.  Jeremy spent many years as a guitarist in death metal band BROKEN HOPE (and now plays with LUPARA), and we discovered that in the late 80s/early 90s we had actually been at many of the same shows in the NYC area.  I'm thrilled for this shredder who has now come into the literary world kicking ass and taking names... (Jeremy Wagner explains the Egyptian element of his novel THE ARMAGEDDON CHORD)
It was also great to catch up with UK author Tim Lebbon, who I hadn't seen since the 2005 WORLD HORROR CONVENTION in NYC, as well as the usual suspects such as Mary SanGiovanni, James Moore, Kim Paffenroth, Bob Ford, Brian Keene, and Tom Monteleone, who shared a HYSTERICAL story of the time he and Harlan Ellison watched a group of scifi nerds at a convention in Texas destroy some redneck bar!  My sides still hurt from laughing over that one...
A Great time that--of course--ended way too fast.